The prior art is already aware of rotary types of lawn mowers which have rearwardly mounted catchers thereon, and these catchers are commonly made of an air pervious material which receives the movement of air and grass clippings from the rotary mower and thus contains the clippings in a desired collected manner. Further, the prior art catchers are arranged for frequent attaching and removal of the catcher relative to the mower, and various catcher elements are provided so that the catcher can be adequately mounted and suspended relative to the mower. However, the most common arrangement is for the catcher to be in a cantilever arrangement. As such, the prior art catcher commonly tends to overbalance the mower and requires that the mower be of a substantial weight and heavy material and with the wheels thereof widely spaced to accommodate the overbalancing effect imposed on the mower by the catcher. Still further, the prior art bag-type catchers are commonly arranged in a manner to extend in directions which are simply to accommodate the location of the mower handle itself, and thus the location of the handle has priority over the location of the catcher, and the catcher is simply positioned in whatever space remains after the handle is designed and arranged relative to the mower. As such, the efficiency of the catcher and the detrimental effect of the weight of the catcher on the mower are factors in those prior art designs.
Examples of the prior art where bag types of catchers are mounted on mowers and the catchers are positioned with priority given to the position of the handle itself, but with the catcher supported from the handle are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,720,071 and 2,970,421 and 2,973,614 and 3,706,190. Of those U.S. patents, only U.S. Pat. No. 2,720,071 shows a bag which is aligned with the mower and supported from the handle, but the disclosure is otherwise substantially different from the structural arrangement in this invention.
The prior art also is aware of the rotary type mower having a rearwardly extending bag which is in line or within the general confines of the lateral limits of the mower itself, such as seen in Australian Pat. No. 402,989 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,910,818 and 2,983,095 and 3,065,588 and 3,091,073 and 3,191,370 and 3,568,421 and 3,636,686. However, those prior art showings are of structures significantly different from that disclosed in this instance, and they do not show the catcher and mower arranged with interengaging members for ready and easy attachment of the catcher to the mower and for having the mower handle extend underneath the catcher and for having the catcher handles and the mower door and the center of gravity of the entire unit, all as mentioned in the aforesaid and is described herein.
Still further, the prior art is aware of other mower and catcher units where the bag type of catcher extends rearwardly but offset from the fore-and-aft axis of the unit, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,118,267 and 3,112,597 are examples of that arrangement; and still further the prior art is aware of arrangements of mower chute doors which are spring-biased to a closed position, such as found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,636,686 and 3,872,656 and 3,706,190, even though those arrangements are significantly different and are utilized for purposes distinct from that disclosed in the present instance.
Accordingly, it is a general object of this invention to provide an improved combined lawn mower and grass catcher, along the lines mentioned in the foregoing. Specifically, the present invention provides for a grass catcher which is aligned within the lateral limits of the mower itself and which has the mower handle extending underneath the catcher for support and protection and guidance of the catcher and which permits the catcher to be readily and easily attached to and removed from the mower. Still further, the mower and catcher are arranged so that the center of gravity of the combined unit, especially when the catcher is filled with grass clippings, is arranged in optimum position relative to the mower itself so that the mower can be of a minimum size and weight and still retain complete stability with a full catcher attached thereto. As such, the mower of this invention can be of a smaller size than the mowers of the prior art, even though the same cutting capacities are achieved in the comparisons between these mowers.
Another object of this invention is to provide a combined mower and catcher unit wherein the mower is arranged with a rearwardly directed discharge opening having a pivotal door operative over the opening and with the catcher and door arranged so that the door is spring-biased to abut a portion of the catcher when the catcher is mounted on the mower and thereby retain the catcher in a secured position on the mower.